WORDS

Use these handy tips to get pronouns right.

Why It Can be Hard to Get Pronouns Right, According to Linguistics

A pronoun slip can be embarrassing, especially if you pride yourself on being generally good at using the language people have asked you to use. Why do pronoun slips happen, and why do we seem to mess up pronouns more than names or other gendered words?

A hat being thrown after Mark Stone of the Las Vegas Golden Knights scored a hat trick in game five of the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup Final.

Where Does the Phrase ‘Hat Trick’ Come From?

The term 'hat trick' is most associated with hockey, but that's not the sport that started it all.

50 Collective Nouns for Groups of Animals

What's the right way to describe a group of worms? A "bunch" may sound like a lazy descriptor, but it's correct.

Ducks would very much like to be excluded from this narrative.

Your Ducking iPhone Will Soon Stop Autocorrecting the F-Word to ‘Duck’

A new iPhone update will spell the end for everyone’s least favorite autocorrect fail.

These linguistic illusions will hurt your brain.

5 Linguistic Illusions That Will Make You Go “Wait, What?”

Linguistic illusions—a phenomenon in which your judgment or understanding of a sentence or phrase conflicts with its actual meaning or structure—reveal how we process the world, and remind us that things aren’t always as they seem.

Matthew Macfadyen and Sarah Snook in 'Succession.'

The #@!*~ Most Swear-Filled TV Show Finales of All Time

The Roy family of 'Succession' is pretty foul-mouthed, but are they the filthiest TV characters?

The first African American dictionary of its kind is due in 2025.

Scholars Have Released the First Words Chosen for The Oxford Dictionary of African American English

The years-in-the-making Oxford Dictionary of African American English will offer proper attribution to words and phrases that originated in Black culture.

Where does this literary device come from, and why is it named after a fish?

Where Did the Phrase 'Red Herring' Come From?

The figurative phrase is more than 200 years old, but the obscure etymology of a 'red herring' is a fishy story that is itself a red herring.

Have You Been Misled by ‘Misles’? The Linguistics Behind These Commonly Mispronounced Words

Learning how to pronounce ‘biopic’ is one thing. Understanding why it’s such a commonly mispronounced word is another.

Oven vs. Stove: What's the Difference?

And how does a range fit into all this?

Why Is A Police Officer’s Baton Called a Billy Club?

The baton has been a law enforcement tool for close to two centuries. But did anyone named Billy actually have anything to do with it?

Know what to say when you visit Little Rhody.

13 Rhode Island Slang Terms You Should Know

Familiarize yourself with these 13 expressions and your Ocean State stay will be that much smoother and more satisfying.

'Lady with a Parasol' by Impressionist Hamilton Hamilton.

13 Old-Timey Synonyms for ‘Hot’ to Bring Back This Summer

Why be sweltering and sunburnt when you can be swoly and birsled instead?

This dachshund wants you to know you're probably mispronouncing the name of his breed.

The Right Way to Pronounce 'Dachshund'

Dachshund is actually made up of two smaller German words (dachs, which means “badger,” and hund, which means “dog”) and it's not pronounced “dash-hound.”

Scuba is just one of the words that's actually an acronym.

25 Words That Are Actually Acronyms

Here are the stories and meanings behind 25 words, names, and titles that you might not have realized actually stand for something.

Ever wonder what you're supposed to be minding when your mind your p's and q's?

What Exactly Are Your P’s and Q’s?

Does it have to do with pea coats? Or maybe Latin scribes?

The Interesting Etymologies of 71 Everyday Words

Here’s (at least) one interesting way station each of these common words made on its journey to the present day, whether it’s an analysis of the Latin roots, a hypothesis about a proto-Indo-European origin, or a pivotal change in meaning.

What's the Difference Between Ketchup and Catsup?

Tomato, tomahto.

Exhibit vs. Exhibition: What’s the Difference?

You just went to an art exhibit. Or was it an exhibition?

DJ Khaled, Amal Clooney, and Rami Malek.

25 Arabic Names You’re Probably Mispronouncing

Loosen up your jaws, lift up those eyebrows, and throw a little phlegm behind it: These 25 common Arabic names are constantly mispronounced.

This list is your Annie Oakley to fitting in at the carnival.

16 Excellent Bits of Carnival Slang to Add to Your Vocabulary

Start slipping these terms into conversation and watch as your friends bally about how great talking to you is.

The origins of the 1940s phrase 'cooking with gas' aren't clear-cut.

18 Gobbledygook-Free 1940s Slang Terms

If you want to know what it was like to strike up a casual conversation in this mid-20th-century decade, we’re going to tell it like it is—with a list of the words and phrases any eager beaver would know well. Ready to find out what’s buzzin’, cousin?

Try out some of these words in your next Scrabble game.

11 Words That Will Win You Any Game of Scrabble

Mind your Zs and Qs on National Scrabble Day. And it wouldn't hurt to know your anti-inflammatories.

How Are ‘Scrabble’ Letter Points Decided?

How did ‘Scrabble’'s makers decide how many points each letter was worth? It started with an unemployed architect during the Great Depression, and it has stayed the same ever since.

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